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Many people have food allergies or dietary restrictions. Placing a teal pumpkin outside signals you have non-food items to hand out on Halloween. The Food Allergy Research & Education’s (FARE) Teal Pumpkin Project inspired me to compile this coloring book to be printed and handed out for free. Great for trick-or-treaters or as a favor at a Halloween party!

Many people have food allergies or dietary restrictions. Placing a teal pumpkin outside signals you have non-food items to hand out on Halloween. The Food Allergy Research & Education’s (FARE) Teal Pumpkin Project inspired me to compile this coloring book to be printed and handed out for free. Great for trick-or-treaters or for a favor at a Halloween party!

Rhymes with Twee & Friends present: Coloring Boo (2016). For the second year in a row, I compiled a Halloween Coloring Book. The Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) started the Teal Pumpkin Project in 2014. Placing a teal pumpkin outside signals you have non-food treats on hand, great for those with food allergies or dietary restrictions.

Rhymes with Twee & Friends present: Coloring Boo 2015. I wrangled fellow artist friends across the country for this project. In 2014, Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) started the Teal Pumpkin Project. A teal pumpkin outside on Halloween signals trick-or-treaters that you have non-food treats for those with food allergies or dietary restrictions. This inspired me to curate and publish a free Halloween coloring book that could be printed and given out to such kids. Enjoy and spread the word!

It’s a dramatic subject, but in between the short bursts of happiness, this one was a bummer for the books.

Rest in peace, Art3mis.

What we believe was Art3mis’ kidney was so enlarged that the ultrasound showed very little and the options were to keep her healthy and happy as long as possible or have exploratory surgery to see what steps to take next. Now, as hedgie parents, Z and I go the extra mile for our hedgebabes, but the thought of having to open her up just to see if there was the chance to save her seemed like unfair treatment to our babe, so we picked the wait and see option. So, we powered through with 6 meds ( 4 of those twice daily). A week after the ultrasound, she started having bloody stools and then stopped eating on her own and we had to syringe feed her canned cat food and she held on through my birthday for me, but that night when I looked into her eyes, I knew it was time. Z and I knew she was ready to go. We took her in to our beloved Chicago Exotics Monday morning, and sent Artie over the rainbow bridge. We will miss that little grumpus and she joins her son Alasdair who we heard recently passed due to an upper respiratory infection.

Z and I decided we need a short break from hedgies due to their too short lives. In the 8 years we have lived together, we’ve had four hedgies pass. We believe we’ll come back to them as foster parents next time around and educate new owners about them before we jump back into being adoptive parents again. For now, we lent our cage to our pals Christina and Shaun who run the Chicago branch of the Hedgehog Welfare Society. Having that empty space where the cage was is worse than when the cage was empty, but it’s what we need to do right now. Luckily, Christina and Shaun have a prickle of hedgehogs to cover us in whenever we need a fix, which will likely be often. <3
Burst of happiness: Darren Hanlon @ Uncharted Books

The Guest. Ex Machina. Love and Mercy. Pride. UHF. These were my favorites of the month – BRILLIANT FILMS every one! Going Clear was great, but too creepy to be one of my favorites! I still don’t like The Big Lebowski all these years after I thought maybe I just didn’t get the humor when I was younger – nope!

At her check-up, Dr. Horton had noticed Artemis’ kidney was enlarged. We had a few rechecks and we’re monitoring it.

What I made for Chicago Food Swap – April 2015

For the Chicago Food Swap this month, I made hickory chick-a-peas, asparagus soup, kale pesto, and fluff stuff – all vegan. I jumped onto the marshmallow fluff made with chickpea brine bandwagon. The most popular things I made were, surprisingly, the asparagus soup + the kale pesto, the most everyday kind of things. Again, you never know what’s going to be the fan fave. My personal fave was the hickory chick-a-peas I made – those babies were OUT OF SIGHT.

For the Chicago Food Swap this month, I made buffa-faux chicken dip, tamales, salsa verde, and rumchata (all vegan) for Chicago Food Swap @ The Chopping Block in the Merchandise Mart. New food swapper tip for anyone internetting first time food swap what to do or what to make: Do not make tamales by yourself for a swap, unless you make them a few days before hand and then freeze them. There are times I learn a new skill and I want to practice and/or show off. I had learned how to make vegan tamales at Kimmi’s the week before and decided for sure that I wanted to make them for the food swap a week later. Originally, I purchased salsa verde to pour over the soy curls (soy chicken) I had soaked, trying to replicate Quesadilla la reina del sur’s delicious salsa verde tamales, but I decided that was not authentic enough and that I had to make my own salsa verde as well (for the first time). Hello, run-on sentence! So, instead of making three items, I was making four items in two days. In times the pressure is on in my work life, I go into ultra-achiever mode and do things like this in my free time. You know. For fun!

What I brought to March swap: buffa-faux chicken dip, carne de soya tamales con salsa verde

It’s all worth it though – it actually IS fun. All of the savory items I brought were a big hit, but I was shocked that the rumchat-ahh wasn’t more popular. It was delicious! Ended up bringing leftovers to coworkers and friends. I don’t believe I’ve mentioned it, but part of the main reason I enjoy going to the food swap is to hone my skills. I like to change it up and I have not made the same thing twice yet. I also like to try to make everything I bring vegan because there is a stigma surrounding veganism. I am a fairly strict vegetarian, but I inch closer to veganism every day. I like showing others, especially in the often dairy/meat-centric food swap arena, that there are so many mouth-watering things that are (or can be made) vegan! It has been inspiring having others start making vegan goods to swap with Alison and myself because they know we make tasty stuff. ^_^

My March swap haul

I swapped for some fantastic things this time. There were not as many vegan treats as I had hoped, but plenty of vegetarian goodies. Lots of bready things & jams/chutneys to go with them this swap. I had lunches for over half a week from my haul and many freezable or pantry items, which are always appreciated. The swappers are such a great group of people and I am happy to be a part of it. I hope to take my MIL Gail to the May one since she and Wes will be in town. If so, I vow to make things ahead of time for that one!

2015 Week 13:
Etsy orders picking back up again after the usual beginning of the year lull that happens for me. Lunch with Gretchen @ Breakfast House. Miss Spoken @ Gallery Cabaret. Made food for Kristen & Bill. Dinner @ Quesadilla with Z.

I did not prepare myself to think much of Whiplash, but it was a truly GREAT film; one that made me audibly gasp and I have thought about it many times since, though I don’t want to watch it again. I played alto saxophone at school for 6 years, through my senior year of high school. I was dedicated and good, fluctuating back and forth between 1st and 2nd chair, playing in symphonic, marching, jazz, and even pit sometimes. 100% band nerd and proud of it, yet I never got to this level of obsession. I saw it around me, but very few people from our (very good) marching & symphonic bands chose to continue this life after high school. I greatly respect professional musicians and one of my dearest friends, Eliza, has chosen this life and I admire her greatly for it. My preference is a day job with regular hours and stability so I can work on Rhymes with Twee goods by night. Anyways, you should see this film, people of the internet, if you have not already done so.

Other particularly great films this month were: Alien & The Never Ending Story (duh), Non-Stop (spoiler alert: still waiting for one of these films where Liam Neeson actually *IS* the bad guy).